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Friday, December 14, 2012

Sepia Saturday: Lovers adrift

Sepia Saturday challenges
bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows lovers kissing
across two vessels. If we carry that
image to its logical conclusion, those boats will drift apart, and the lovers
will be separated.

The symbolism implied in the photo extends to the story
of my great aunt and uncle, Catherine Walsh and Steve Barany.

Could two people look any happier?

In her teen years my aunt Betty(Beverly Slade Anderson)
visited Aunt Cat and Uncle Steve in their Washington D.C. home many times.

Jackie, Steve Barany, Betty (Beverly Slade Anderson)

Aunt Betty said Cat and Steve were lots of fun. Steve made sure to show Betty and her friend
Jackie a good time, usually going to hockey games and other sporting events, but they also toured the historic sites of Washington D.C.

Cat and Steve were loved by their neighbors. They had lots of friends and enjoyed parties.

Steve and Catherine Barany on the left
with neighbors on the right

At what appears to be a birthday or New Years party,
Catherine and Steve are on the front row, far right.

Front row: Cat is smoking and wearing a dark striped
sweater. I wonder what the tags were for.

But there’s a dark side to their story.

By day, Steve was a machinist in the Navy Yard. By night, he was a bookie.
He ran his business in the basement of their home. No one was allowed to answer the phone except
him. If the call was for Cat or Betty,
he rang a little bell to let them know to pick up the phone upstairs.

The Barany household must have been much like that of
George and Martha in Edward Albee’s Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cat and
Steve fought too much. They also drank too
much. Maybe that came with Steve’s business. Maybe it was part of the Irish curse that Cat would become an alcoholic like her brother and two of her sisters.

So like lovers on two different boats, Cat and Steve
drifted apart. Although legally separated,
they continued to share the house in Washington D.C. for many years until Cat
decided to return home to Portsmouth to be closer to her sisters. In
1969, Cat and Steve died within months and miles of each other.

Please visit Sepia Saturday for more stories of hugs and
kisses, hello’s and good-bye’s, boats, and lovers.

What a melancholy story, Wendy. I always dread hearing this kind of story about my own friends. I suppose sometimes it can't be helped, but that never stops me from hoping it turned out otherwise. I'm a firm believer in the dream of growing old together.

Appearances can deceive apparently, because they looked genuinely happy in their pictures. No forced smiles there -- the eyes glitter. Did she put up with it because of the financial benefits? Think she didn't deserve a stand-up guy? Or was she smitten in spite of the challenges?

Great photos and a sad ending. We had a bookie family living in our neighborhood and nobody even guessed until there was a police raid. Actually the family was pretty happy and seemed well adjusted. Now when I read this about the secrecy and think about the risk they were living with, they probably weren't as happy as they appeared. Demon rum ruined many family in those days...today, with all the help available for addiction, they might have had a happier ending.

You told us in the beginning it didn't end well. Maybe they were happy in the beginning or maybe they were masters of the camera smile. My question is, how can you tell her hair isn't red in the photos since they are not in color?

Oh Kristin, you're funny. When my sister and I knew Cat, we were kids. Her hair was a bright red, orangey red. I have another photo of Cat with her hair dyed, and it appears almost blond in a black and white photo.

"Love is not always enough" - that's profound. Love songs would have us think otherwise. Now I'm thinking about some couples I know and have known who LOVE/LOVED each other but just couldn't be together. What was missing?

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net